The use of fare cards in mass transit systems has reached record levels with the introduction of free transfers, unlimited passes, and fare pricing systems based on distance traveled, time of day, and user categorization including age and frequent user. Automatic fare collection (AFC) presents several advantages over person-to-person cash exchanges including reduced operating costs based upon a decrease in required personnel, automation of system accounting, and improved convenience and safety for commuters by the elimination of ticket window lines and ticket purchases for each transit system ride.
Fare cards are available in various formats including magnetic stripe cards, contact smart cards and contactless smart cards. The fare cards may be purchased at automatic vending machines utilizing bills/coins, credit, and/or debit cards. The value of the card may be limited to the value of a single transit fare, or may exceed the value of a single transit fare so that the card may be used for multiple fares. A fare card having a value exceeding one transit fare offers an advantage of a single financial transaction for multiple rides. In addition, since the fare collection systems deduct value automatically for time and/or distance based fares, the rider does not need to compute exact fare amount as long as the amount on the card equals or exceeds the required fare, and thus, the time the rider spends at a fare card dispensing machine is shortened. Any monetary value remaining on the card is usable for a subsequent fare. Fare cards also offer the advantage of being reusable. The transit rider inserts a used card into an automatic fare vending machines along with a payment means including bills/coins, or credit/debit cards, and a corresponding added value is stored on the fare card.
Current automatic vending machines offer the above stated advantages of reuse of a fare card and quick transaction times. However, due to frequent use of the fare card, a transit patron is unlikely to know the exact amount on his or her card at any given time. In order to determine the value before attempting to pass through a transit gate, the patron must have access to a vending machine or another card reader. If the patron attempts to enter the gate without sufficient value on the fare card, he or she will be denied access to the transit system until value is added to the fare card. Thus, the patron will have to seek out a vending machine to add value to the fare card. During peak commuter hours, commuters are often faced with lines at the automatic fare vending machines.
The procedure of loading monetary value onto a fare card requires the patron to insert or wave the fare card past the vending machine to read the current value of the card. The patron then selects an action prompted by the vending machine to add monetary value to the card by either inserting cash into the vending machine conducting the transaction utilizing a credit card. The credit card transaction requires that the patron's credit card be inserted into the vending machine. The vending machine then initiates a check through the credit card company to obtain approval to charge the requested amount. Once a monetary value is deposited into the vending machine or approved via credit, the patron must re-insert or wave the fare card by a target to have the requested value added to the fare card. The patron is then ready to utilize the fare card to gain access to the transit system. The extra time required to add value to the fare card, as well as the need to have cash or a credit card on hand at all time, is inconvenient for the patron and may cause undue delays for the patron in arriving at his or her destination.
Fare cards may also be utilized to support employee benefits programs that supply a set monetary value to be used by the employee each month for payment of transit fare. To receive the benefit, a patron must have the monetary value loaded onto the card at a transit vending machine. Thus, there is a potential for long patron queues waiting at transit vending machines at the beginning of each month. As the benefits program expands, and is made available to an increasing number of patrons, the vendor queues will become frustratingly longer.
Due their increasing popularity, reusable cards are also utilized outside of the transit system environment, also referred to herein as an “out-of-system” environments. An example of an out-of-system environment is use of a magnetic stripe card or smart card to purchase groceries and/or other consumer goods. For example, a magnetic stripe or smart card may be used at grocery stores by a person who is entitled to welfare food benefits awarded by a government agency. Since the benefit is recurring, the card value must be replenished at the issuing agency or at a designated terminal. Similar to transit system environments, out-of-system environments have the potential of presenting inconveniences to the card users who wish to replenish the card value.
Therefore, a need remains in mass transit systems to provide for automatic loading of a monetary value onto fare cards at the rail transit gates and/or bus fare boxes. A further need remains to provide out-of-system environments that automatically load values onto magnetic stripe or smart cards.